The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-01-22
NEW ORLEANS.

along through the French Market, and
by Jackson Square to the Hotel Royal.
The morning, after rain, was charming;
there was fresh breeze from the river;
the foliage was tender green; in the
balconies and on the moldering window
lodges flowers bloomed, and in the decay
ing courts climbing roses mingled their
perfume with the orange; the shops we're
open; ladies tripped along from early
macs or to early market; there was a
twittering III the square and in the sweet
old gardens; Gagged birds sang and
screamed the songs Of South America
and the tropics; the language heard on
all sides was French, or the degraded
iargon which the easy. going African has
manufactured out of the tongne of Bien-
vile. Nothing could be more shabby
than the streets, ill-paved, with undulat-
ing sidewalks, and open cutters green
with slime, and both stealing and giving
odor; little canals in which the cat be-
came the companion of the crawfisb, and
the vegetable in decay sought in vain a
current to oblivion; the streets with rows
of one story houses, wooden with green
| doors and batten window shutters, OF
brick, with the painted stucco pealing of,
the line broken often by an editice of two
stories, with galleries and delicate tracery
of wrought iron, houses pink and yellow
and brown and gray-colors all blending
and harmonious when we get long vista
OF them, and lose the details of view in the
broad, artistic effect; nothing could be
shabbieg than the streets, unless it is the
tumble down, picturesque old market.
bright with flowers and vegetables and
many-hued fish, and enlivened by the
genial African, who in the New World
experiments in all colors, from coal
black to the pale pink OF the sea.ehel to
find one that suits his mobile nature. |
liked it all from the first; fingered long
in that morning walk, liking it more and
more, in spite of it's shabblness, but ut
terly unable to say then or ever since
wherein the charm lies. suppose we are
all wrongly made up and have fallen
nature; else why lie it that while the most
thrifty and neat and orderly city only
wins our approval, and perhaps gratities
us Intellectually, such thriftless, batter
ed and stained, and lazy old place as the
French quarter of New Orleans takes our
hearts?
Although New Orleans has only about
quarter of million of inhabitants, and
SO many only in the winter, it is larger
than Pekin, and l believe than Philadel-
phia, having an area of about one hun
dred and five square miles. From Car
rollton to the Barracks, which are not
far from the Battle Field, the distance by
the river is some thirteen miles. From
the river to the lake the least distance is
four miles. This vast territory is travl
ersed by lines of horse cars which al.
meet in Canal street, the most important
business thoroughfare of the city. which
runs northeast from the river, and divides
the French from the American quarter.
One taking a horse car in any part OF
the city will ultimately land, having box
ed the compass, in Canal street. But it
needs person OF vast local erudition to
tell in what part OF the city, or in what
section of the home of the frog and craw-
fish, he will land if he takes horse Car
ON Canal street. The river being higher
than the city, there is, of course, no drain
age into it; but there is theory that the
water in the open cutters does move, and
that ii moves in the direction of the Bayou
st. John, and of the cypress swamps that
drain into Lake Ponchartrain. The
stranger who Is accustomed to closed
sewers, and to get bis malaria and typhoid
fever through pipes conducted into his
house by the most approved methods of
plumbing, is aghast at this spectacle of
slime and fifth in the streets, and wonders
why the city is not i'll perennial epidemic;
but the sun and wind are great scaven-
gers, and the city is not nearly SO un-
healthy as it ought to be with such
city government as they say it endures.
Although all on one level, it is town
of contrasts. In no other city of the
United States or Mexico is the old and
the romantic preserved in such integrity
and brought into such sharp contrast to
the modern. There are many hand
some public buildings, churches, club
houses, elegant shops, and on the Ameri-
can side great area of well-paved streets
solidly built up in business blocks. The
Square of the original city, included
between the river and canal, Rampant
and Esplanade streets, which was once
surrounded by wall, is as closely
built, but the streets are narrow, the
houses generally are smaller, and al
though it swarms with people, and con-
tains the cathedral, the old Spanish
buildinge, Jackson Square, the French
Market, the French Opera House and
other theatres, the Mint, the Custom
house, the old Ursuline Convent (now the
residence of the archbishop old banks,
and scores of houses of historic celebrity,
it is city of the past, and specially
interesting in its picturesque decay. Be-